FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) ‡
THE BLUE JUG
Estimate: £200,000 - £300,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 103-196 | Thursday 05 December from 6pm
Description
Signed, inscribed verso ‘Still life (the blue jug), Cadell, 6 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh’, oil on canvas
Dimensions
61cm x 51cm (24in x 20in)
Provenance
Joseph Kent Richardson (1877-1972)
Portland Gallery, London where acquired by the present owner in 1994
Exhibited:
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, F. C. B. Cadell 1883-1937, April-May 1942 and tour to Glasgow Art Gallery (lent by Joseph Kent Richardson)
Literature:
Tom Hewlett, Cadell: The Life and Works of a Scottish Colourist 1883-1937, London 1988, illustrated p. 94, pl. 85 (as ‘The Red Chair’).
Footnote
It was with paintings like The Blue Jug that F. C. B. Cadell truly earned his status as a Scottish Colourist. Its brilliance of colour, not least in the red chair which is central to the overall image, the dynamism of its cropped and asymmetrical composition and its deft manipulation of perspective, all show him working at the height of his powers.
Having made his name as an artist in pre-World War One Edinburgh, Cadell was de-mobilised from active service in the Spring of 1919. Shortly afterwards he moved to 6 Ainslie Place in Edinburgh’s New Town, a magnificent Georgian town house across the road from his childhood home at number twenty-two. The decoration and furnishing of his impressive new quarters became the subject of and inspiration for a new era in his work.
As Alice Strang has explained:
‘He painted his front door bright blue to annoy his neighbours…On the first floor, he repeated the lilac walls and the highly-polished black painted floorboards of his…[pre-war]…George Street studio. He added a brilliant lapis lazuli-coloured fire surround within the cream marble mantelpiece in the front drawing room. On the ground floor, walls and woodwork, including shutters, were painted in dark blue, green and brown above a light grey floor, whilst an impressive Robert Adam-style eagle overmantel partnered the black marble mantelpiece in the dining room. (Alice Strang, F. C. B. Cadell, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2011, p.39)
A striking element of these dazzingly modern interiors was the red chair seen in the present work, one of at least three that Cadell painted in this manner which became prominent props in key works of the 1920s. Here we see him exploiting its linear potential to the full, having positioned it at an oblique angle to the canvas surface and setting it before a plain, black background, against which its wooden struts sing in contrast.
The seat of the chair is used as a novel alternative to a tabletop on which to assemble some of the artist’s most effective still-life objects; the lilac and green fabric, draped over the chair’s back and seat, draws the viewer’s eye from upper centre to lower left of the image, whilst the trio of blue jug, orange and lemon forms a brilliantly coloured focal point. Depth, height and the space beyond the canvas are all realised or hinted at with great skill.
As Alice Strang continues:
‘The cropped composition, flat application of paint and use of increasingly brilliant colour in these …works were in contrast to Cadell’s pre-war interiors which are characterised by a looser handling…[and]…a cooler palette…After the war, Cadell was no longer attempting to capture images of fashionable society, but instead was concerned with an almost abstract concept of space and perspective. This marked change is thought to have been encouraged by Cadell’s new surroundings…[and]…by his close collaboration with Peploe immediately after the war.’ (op.cit., p.40)
Given how closely Cadell and his friend and fellow Scottish Colourist, S. J. Peploe, were working during this period – and indeed living as Peploe’s home was some five minutes’ walk away from Ainslie Place in India Street – it is no surprise to see Peploe also enjoying the structural and colour potential of a red painted chair, as seen in contemporary works such as Still Life with Tulips and Oranges in the collection of Abbot Hall, Kendal.
However, it was Cadell who really exploited the prop to the full, and paintings of his in public collections in which a red chair features prominently include Aspidistra and Bottle on Table and The Blue Fan in the National Galleries of Scotland, as well as Still Life and Rosechatel and Studio Interior in The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. It can be argued that Anne Redpath’s used of brightly painted chairs in her work of the 1940s, such as The Indian Rug (Red Slippers) (National Galleries of Scotland) and Still Life, the Orange Chair (The Fleming Collection) exemplifies the impact that Cadell’s boldness of the 1920s, as seen in The Blue Jug, had on the next generation of Scottish artists.